Fan Voting for The Bowerman Has Begun! Get Your Choices In!

NEW ORLEANS – Online fan voting is now underway for The Bowerman – the nation’s top award for collegiate track & field athletes. Three men and three women are finalists for the award, and, you, the fan can help determine this year’s winners. Voting will be conducted at TheBowerman.org through Tuesday, July 24, and its results will amount to one full vote in the overall balloting process.

Online fan voting started in 2010 with over 20,000 participants. In 2012, the record was set to over 83,000 votes cast, more than triple the number from 2011.

Paper balloting by The Bowerman Advisory Board, past winners, selected media personnel, statisticians, and collegiate administrators, is also underway until later this month. An independent accounting firm will collect, tabulate, and certify final results and will keep the result secret until the envelope is opened in December.

The award, in its fourth year of existence, will be presented in a ceremony at the USTFCCCA Convention on December 19 at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando, Fla.

THE BOWERMAN FINALISTS, 2012 MEN

Cam Levins, Southern Utah
Distance, Black Creek, B.C.

Levins swept NCAA Outdoor crowns at 5000 and 10,000 meters this season, becoming the first to do so since 2009 when The Bowerman winner from that year – Oregon’s Galen Rupp – did so in Fayetteville, Ark. Using a 58.06 final lap split, he maintained his two-second lead to take the 10k title in 28:07.14, the best time in meet history since 1984. In the 5000, Levins closed in 54.28 on the final lap and 1:59.66 over the last 800 meters, to win by over a second (13:40.05).

Tony McQuay, Florida
Sprints, Riviera Beach, Fla. (Suncoast HS)

McQuay helped lead the Gators to their first NCAA Outdoor team title with a national crown in the 400 meters and as anchor of the 4×400 relay that took the victory. In the 400, McQuay claimed top honors with the season’s collegiate best time of 44.58 seconds, just ahead of Oregon’s Mike Berry. In the 4×400, McQuay literally clinched the team title for the Gators. Taking the baton in second place, Florida, down two points heading into the meet’s final event, needed to win the relay to secure at least a share of the team crown. McQuay, with a 44.01 split, fired past Southern California’s Bryshon Nellum to take the tape. Because LSU finished third in the relay, the Gators managed a four-point swing, enough to place Florida on top of the point standings.

Andrew Riley, Illinois
Sprints/Hurdles, Kingston, Jamaica

Riley became the first in NCAA Division I history to win the 100 meters and 110 hurdles at the same outdoor national championships.

Riley, USTFCCCA’s National Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year, won the 100 meters in one of the closest finishes in NCAA meet history. Riley forged through a headwind of 2.3 meters per second (5.14 mph) to best Auburn’s Harry Adams by two thousandths of a second (10.272 to 10.274). In the national semifinal, Riley had his sprinting breakthrough, clocking a new personal best of 10.02.

In the 110 hurdles, Riley, the 2010 NCAA champ, won each of the NCAAs four rounds and clocked 13.53 in the final, despite 3.5 meters per second headwind (7.83 mph). Riley won by seven hundredths of a second over Texas A&M’s Wayne Davis II (13.60). Earlier in the season, Riley clocked the collegiate-leading time of 13.28 at the John McDonnell Invitational, moving to No. 8 on the all-time collegiate performance list.

THE BOWERMAN FINALISTS, 2012 WOMEN

Brigetta Barrett, Arizona
Jumps, Duncanville, Texas (Duncanville HS)

With sweeps of NCAA high jump crowns in the indoor and outdoor seasons, Barrett became the first woman in DI history to earn dual-season titles in back-to-back years – a combination of four consecutive national titles between the seasons.

For the indoor NCAA meet, Barrett cleared 6-5 (1.96m) – tied for the seventh-best mark in collegiate history – to take the crown and was one of only two to clear a bar at more than six feet that day. At the outdoor national championships, Barrett won with a clearance of 6-4 (1.93m).

Barrett cleared 6-5½ (1.97m) at the indoor Razorback Invitational in January. That leap tied Barrett for the second-best mark in indoor collegiate history and was the best among the collegiate ranks since 2009 when The Bowerman finalist Destinee Hooker cleared 6-6 (1.98m) to win the NCAA title.

Kimberlyn Duncan, LSU
Sprints, Katy, Texas (Cypress Springs HS)

After the 2012 collegiate year, Duncan is the first woman in NCAA Division I to win back-to-back indoor and outdoor national titles in the 200 meters. That’s four straight national crowns in the event for Duncan who still has senior eligibility remaining in 2013. Duncan is the first woman in award history to be a two-time finalist.

All told, Duncan now has six NCAA titles to her credit – four with the 200 meters and two with the 4×100 relay.

This season, Duncan contributed 20½ points to LSU’s claim of the NCAA outdoor team title, winning the 200 meters, finishing runner-up in the 100, and anchoring the Lady Tigers to victory in the 4×100 relay. She crushed the field in each of the NCAA’s four rounds in the 200 meters, winning each race by at least three tenths of a second. In the event’s final, Duncan clocked 22.86 despite a 2.3 meters-per-second headwind. In the national semifinal Duncan claimed a new low-altitude all-time collegiate best time of 22.19 seconds — a time that is dubbed as the second-fastest time in collegiate history.

Theisen added two more NCAA titles to her trophy case in 2012 by again winning national crowns in the indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon. It was Theisen’s third claim to national glory in both events. Among NCAA Division I women, Theisen is now tied for fourth on the all-time championship-titles list, including relays and across both indoor and outdoor track & field. She only trails Texas’ Carlette Guidry (12), Texas’ Suziann Reid (10), and Wisconsin’s Suzy Favor (9) in career national crowns.

Indoors, Theisen won the national crown with 4,536 points, joining Arizona State’s Jacquelyn Johnson (2006-07-08) as the only other three-time champion in the event.

WINNER SELECTION PROCESS

The Bowerman Voters will receive ballots listing each of the finalists and must rank them by first, second and third choice. First-place votes will receive three points, second place will notch two, and third will receive one point. The finalist with the highest point total will be declared the winner.

The Bowerman Voters consist of:

The Bowerman Advisory Board (10 members)

Select media personnel, statisticians, and collegiate administrators

Galen Rupp, 2009 men’s winner of The Bowerman

Ashton Eaton, 2010 men’s winner of The Bowerman

Ngoni Makusha, 2011 men’s winner of The Bowerman

Jenny (Barringer) Simpson, 2009 women’s winner of The Bowerman

Queen Harrison, 2010 women’s winner of The Bowerman

Jessica Beard, 2011 women’s winner of The Bowerman

Online voting by the public will constitute one collective vote (ranking of choices will be made by order of total single votes)

Online voting by USTFCCCA members will constitute one collective vote (ranking of choices will be made by order of total single votes)

Paper balloting will conclude in the coming weeks while online voting will begin on Monday, July 9 and will last until Tuesday, July 24. An independent accounting firm will collect, tabulate, and certify final results and will keep the result secret until the envelope is opened in December.

ABOUT THE BOWERMAN

The Bowerman, which debuted in 2009, is presented annually by the USTFCCCA to the most outstanding male and female collegiate track & field athlete in the nation. The award is named for is named for legendary Oregon track & field and cross country coach Bill Bowerman.

Florida State’s Ngoni Makusha and Texas A&M’s Jessica Beard are the reigning winners of The Bowerman. Makusha won bronze in the long jump at 2011 World Championships.

Bowerman served the sport of track and field in numerous ways. His leadership in the USTFCCCA’s predecessor organization, the National Collegiate Track Coaches Association, and his contributions to NCAA track and field and the running community as a whole are among his many lasting legacies.

For more information on The Bowerman, the award, the trophy, and Bill Bowerman himself, visit TheBowerman.org.

ABOUT THE USTFCCCA

The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) is a non-profit professional organization representing cross country and track & field coaches of all levels. The organization represents over 8,000 coaching members encompassing 94% of all NCAA track & field programs (DI, DII, and DIII) and includes members representing the NAIA as well as a number of state high school coaches associations. The USTFCCCA serves as an advocate for cross country and track & field coaches, providing a leadership structure to assist the needs of a diverse membership, serving as a lobbyist for coaches’ interests, and working as a liaison between the various stakeholders in the sports of cross country and track & field.